The charity behind the famous No. 60163 Tornado and Britain’s most powerful steam locomotive No. 2007 Prince of Wales, has announced that Cleardata has started the scanning of 366 of the original Doncaster Works drawings to enable the construction of a yet-to-be named third Gresley class V4 No. 3403.
The LNER class V4 was a 2-6-2 steam locomotive designed by Sir Nigel Gresley for mixed-traffic use over the whole of the LNER network. The class V4s had similarities in their appearance and mechanical layout
to the class V2s of which pioneer No. 4771 Green Arrow is preserved. Two class V4s were built at the LNER’s Doncaster Works in 1941 – No. 3401 Bantam Cock and No. 3402 which was un-named but known unofficially as Bantam Hen.
No. 3401 Bantam Cock was unveiled at York on 11th February 1941 by its designer Sir Nigel Gresley – his last public appearance before his sudden death in office on 5th April 1941. It was anticipated that many more would be produced, but his successor Edward Thompson produced the class B1 4-6-0s instead of which 410 were built.
Steve Davies MBE, chairman, The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, commented: “We want to be ready to start assembling our new Gresley class V4 as soon as our new class P2 is completed. We anticipate the project costing around £3m and taking around five years subject to the pace of fundraising.”
